Ken NnaFood

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FoodNnaka Profile

Exemplified by her penchant to put the needs of others above hers, Ken Nnaka, popularly known as Ken NnaFood, credits his mother’s generosity and passion to feed the hungry -despite her own limited resources- as his first experience with, and motivation towards charity.

Born into a large African family and growing up in the midst of numerous children, young Ken always wondered what the future held for him beyond the immediate rural surroundings of his birth. From a very young age, he demonstrated immense curiosity about the world and sought, through his quest for knowledge, to discover the vast opportunities he believed existed in a world beyond his present reality.

It was this curiosity that resulted in his chance encounter with destiny when at 13 years of age, walking back home after a Sunday morning mass, he found a random piece of paper along a dirt road in his hometown. He picked up the flier, read it, and discovered it was a call for the recruitment of young men into the priesthood by the catholic archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska, in faraway United States of America.

Where most teenagers his age would have brushed the flier aside, citing the obviously insurmountable obstacles it would take for a young child growing up in a remote African village; to leave the shores of Africa for the western world, Ken saw this as a lifetime opportunity to give expression to the depth of his love for God and burning passion to serve the needs of humanity.

Encouraged by this inherent passion to achieve the seeming unattainable, young Ken started correspondence with the vocation director of the archdiocese of Omaha using the postal details on the flier he picked up on the road. It is important to note that at this time in Nigeria, electronic communication was basically non-existent! Not to mention the comatose nature of the national postal service for both local and especially international mail delivery. Mails almost always got missing in transit, with almost absolute certainty that replies may never return for those mails lucky enough to have been delivered! It took a great deal of unwavering commitment to his dreams for Ken to open this line of communication with the archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska, and an equally unimaginable spirit of perseverance to keep the communication going. A great sign of spiritual providence was the successful delivery of Ken’s first letter and his prompt receipt of a reply from Nebraska! This bolstered his courage to keep writing and receiving replies from the archdiocese.

Fr. Dave Reeson, the vocation director at the archdiocese, obviously impressed by the rare sense of commitment and excellence displayed by this young African interested in entering into a life of service to God -beginning with the catholic priesthood-, decided, after a few years period of consistent correspondence, to make a trip down to Africa to meet with Ken, his unbelievably tenacious, adroit teenage friend.

This was a momentous event, the first of its kind! A high ranking official of the catholic church from the United States of America, visiting Africa for the first time, at the behest of a young teenage boy, this would serve as an inkling into Kenneth’s innate ability -unknown to many at the time -to break barriers and chart unprecedented life courses.

After a series of interviews held with several young men interested in the priesthood, Ken was chosen by Fr. Reeson, from a pool of over one hundred prospects, to fill the position; thus becoming the first black seminarian in the archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska USA. It is also important to note that this would be Fr. Reeson’s first and only trip to Africa during his lifetime.

Consistent with his deep desire to positively impact the world, whilst still a seminarian, Ken met Fr. Stan Kasun and the shared passion of both men to alleviate the sufferings of the poorest of the poor in society engendered a close bond which found expression in them facilitating charitable outreaches to the poorest regions across the globe.

After several years of service in the Catholic Church, Ken took a leave of absence and enrolled at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law. He graduated law school with honors, and edged on by his savvy entrepreneurial spirit, passed up what would have definitely been cushy job offers from various potential employers, he set up a private law practice in Texas. This navigation into the uncharted waters of entrepreneurship paid off as he went on to lead his law firm to enviable heights, achieving acclaim as one of the most successful attorneys within Houston and beyond, and despite the successes he had attained at this time in his career and personal life, the unbridled desire, instigated from his childhood, to lift up the poorest of the poor and give hope to those without remained on the front burner of his focus.

He facilitated the delivery of philanthropic interventions in parts of Africa under the aegis of Christian Foundation for the Youth & Aged, through which over 2000 indigent African youth and children were placed on education scholarships from elementary to university levels.

Ken NnaFood has waved the banner of philanthropy high across many nations of the world, inspiring a generation of selfless individuals to contribute their invaluable quota to responsible global citizenship, a passionate pursuit he continues to do on the platform of Food for the Poorest Foundation, where he currently serves as President and Co-chair of the board of directors.

He is happily married and blessed with children.